Aquinas snaps Sweet Home streak at 36

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Battered but not beaten.

That's the label that the Aquinas Institute (Rochester, N.Y.) football team can carry with justifiable pride this week after grinding out a 36-6 victory Friday night over Sweet Home (Amherst, N.Y.) in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A quarterfinals at All-High Stadium.

Juniors Jahmahl Pardner and Taylor Byrne, both of whom were dinged the previous week, made huge first-half plays on a night in which the Little Irish took the field without injured all-state senior Chris Bostick.

Pardner, sidelined for a time in the sectional final vs. Victor due to a leg injury, opened the game with a 38-yard kickoff return to set up a 52-yard scoring drive that gave Aquinas the lead for good. He put the exclamation point on the blowout with a 67-yard punt return for a score early in the fourth quarter and tacked on an interception.



Meanwhile, Byrne outjumped Sweet Home defender Nick Spidell for a 32-yard TD off a throw from Cory Benedetto for a touchdown with 2:45 left in the second quarter. A week earlier, he had absorbed a huge hit while making a grab on a crossing pattern but held onto the ball and refused to come out of the game.

Eric Terhaar converted a 23-yard field goal on the final play of the half, Mike Messina capped the first Little Irish possession of the third quarter with a 31-yard run for his second TD, and Aquinas snapped Sweet Home's winning streak at 36 games.

The Panthers (10-1) were two-time defending state Class A champions.

Next up, Aquinas (11-0) faces Whitesboro on Nov. 19 in Rochester. The winner advances to the state final on Thanksgiving weekend at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, a location so very familiar to representatives from Sections V and VI – particularly the Little Irish and Panthers.

It was the fourth straight year Aquinas and Sweet Home met in the playoffs. Aquinas won the 2007 quarterfinal 28-7 en route to its record-tying fourth NYSPHSAA championship. Sweet Home triumphed by scores of 23-6 and 33-7 in the quarterfinals the next two seasons and then went on to state titles in Syracuse by beating Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in the final.

Pardner's lightning-quick kickoff return to open the game set up Messina's first touchdown, a 7-yard effort on fourth-and-1 midway through the first quarter. Ralph Neasman countered with a 2-yard Sweet Home TD run after Aquinas wasted a long Pardner punt return, but the Panthers' extra-point attempt failed, keeping keep the score 7-6 midway through the second quarter.



After Benedetto's TD throw to Byrne, Jarron Jones of Aquinas made an athletic interception and return to the Sweet Home 17 with 1:17 to go. Working without any timeouts, the Little Irish fumbled a third-down pitch play but scrambled their kick team onto the field to convert Terhaar's FG attempt as time expired in the half.

Aquinas' first possession of the third quarter ended on a 31-yard TD run by Messina, who had to be spelled twice in the Victor game after injuring an ankle on the first series of the game. The key play of the drive was Tim Young carrying for first-down yardage on 4th-and-2 at the 45 three plays before Messina's TD made it 23-6.

Nick LoBrutto (9-yard rush) and Pardner (67-yard punt return) scored 1:22 apart early in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

In Friday's other NYSPHSAA quarterfinals:

Class A: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake 42, Potsdam 0; Whitesboro 40, Maine-Endwell 1; Harrison 35, Wallkill 13.

Class B: Croton-Harmon 27, New Paltz 0.

Class D: Walton 20, Onondaga 0; Caledonia-Mumford 20, Silver Creek 13.